Surprised that dreadlocks are racially charged.

I’m one year in to a five-year exploration of dreadlocks as a participant-observer, so I can learn about the experience and the perceptions; it’s called Dread Like Me and I maintain a blog about it at dreadlikeme.blogspot.com. I expected people to treat me differently because they would think I looked dirty or was a drugged-out hippie, maybe, but I was NOT anticipating a racial component to this hairstyle!

There is a sentiment that white people with dreadlocks are guilty of cultural appropriation, and there’s also quite a bit of pushback by whites against this idea. Now that it’s on my radar I ask people about it specifically, and it doesn’t appear to be a majority view by any stretch, but it’s certainly not uncommon.

Keep the conversation going - comment and discuss with your thoughts

travis

hey this is travis if you dont contact me ill see you in person soon ok bye

barry irving

…so you’re doing this to get a reaction?…you get what you ask for. I grew my dreads ( fourteen years ) because I love my natural hair, as a statement of my culture as an African American artist / drummer / educator and because for my hair type it makes sense to have dreads.

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